Chapter 39: He with the Biggest Purse, Wins!
There was still time before the auction closed, so I let the group at the table know what was happening, “Someone outbid me on the NPCs at the player auction. Jaesmin, can you go get me some coins from the general store? You will have to get Elice, as she controls the town finances. Make it ten platinum. That is about half of what we have.” My heart was beating faster as I opened my bids.
Bid
Name
Class Level
Race
Sex
Age
Primary Skill
20 gold (anonymous)
Jaylyn
Knight 47
Human
M
28
Expert Blade: Medium
20 gold (anonymous)
Lyons
Knight 43
Human
M
28
Expert Armor: Heavy
1 gold
Kassta
Brewer 61
Beastkin: Bull
M
33
Expert Brewer
1 gold
Warne
Craftsman 29
Beastkin: Wolf
M
20
Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
1 gold
Tilda
Farmer 37
Halfling
F
52
Expert Crop Farming
1 platinum
Breda
Bureaucrat 147
Dwarf
F
64
Master City Planning
1 gold
Neral
Bureaucrat 103
Giantkin: Fire
M
69
Master Bureaucracy: Guilds
1 platinum
Titus
Hospitalar 140
Gnome
M
66
Master Order Magic
1 platinum
Darai
Lumberjack 103
Elf: Wood
F
277
Master Woodcraft: Lumberjack
1 platinum
Varrine
Builder 77
Beastkin: Bear
M
37
Master Woodcraft: Carpentry
1 platinum
Iona
Constructor 120
Elf
F
152
Master Masonry: Structures
So, someone was making a play for the two knights. They had jumped my one gold bid to 20 gold. Since all bidding was anonymous, I had no idea who was making the play for the NPCs. The two pieces of gold I had bid on were refunded to my dimensional bag. So what should I do? Should I try for the same NPCs, raising the price? Or should I just find two other NPCs?
“So, guys, it looks like I have been outbid on the only two fighters I bid on in the NPC auction. What should I do?” I asked the group around the table. It was just a brief moment before Mad Dog spoke.
“Can you see if it is a free-for-all in there? Are a bunch of people trying to outbid each other?” he asked as he was thinking. For all his rough edges, it was clear that Mad Dog was a thinker.
“I don’t know. Give me a second.” I sorted the NPC by just the ones that had bids and watched the prices. A few changes here and there. “There is some competition. About a dozen NPCs keep increasing in price.” Mad Dog nodded at my words.
“Well, from what you told us, you may have just had a favor done for you. Your two slots are now free to bid on something else. Or you can try for the two warriors and force up the price. I can see this auction as being a focal point of city-building guilds in the future. It is an ingenious way to siphon coins from guilds. And you said the NPC cities would be joining in on the fun when the game launches?” I nodded. “Well, at least the bidder is anonymous.” Mad Dog finished.
Jaesmin had returned with the coins, and I added them to my pouch to use in the auction. I studied the bids, and it looked like the biggest competition was for the warriors and stone mages. So, it appeared defense and building were becoming important. I lost another bid as someone outbid me on the halfling farmer. It was just one copper more, so I immediately raised my bid to 2 gold. That should let the other party know I was watching. The halfling farmer had a large family, so would boost the population of Malcum.
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Time passed as I narrated what was going on with the auction for Mad Dog and Grinder. Black Beauty got bored and went to listen to singing by the hearth in the inn.
I was considering what to do with the two knights when their price jumped again to 30 gold each. Mad Dog spoke. “Tallis if you could take a screenshot and send it to me, I would appreciate it. Just of the final amounts for bidding. I think this is going to play a huge role in game economics and should be valuable information to sell.” I nodded and raised the price on both knights to 50 gold each, reentering the bidding war with two others. I then increased the halfling to 3 gold, thinking that maybe the other party would think there were three interested parties and drop out.
Time ticked away, and it was the expert skilled tier that had the most bidding. Since the expert tier only cost one gold to start bidding, that made sense. Most of the expert NPCs being fought over had risen to between 20 and 60 gold. My own targeted knights were now at 55 gold. With there being 20 minutes left before the auction closed, I thought about competing for a stone mage and dropping the knights. Or maybe just going for a master’s skill no one else was interested in? The bids for the knights were likely going to hit a platinum anyway. I also had my force of NPCs coming to garrison my barracks in the future.
Still, it was hard not to fight for the knights. I mean, I had bid on them the first day of the auction, and now, with just a few minutes left someone was trying to steal them away! Think pragmatically, Tallis. I filtered and looked at the other masters available. Fine, take my stupid human knights!
I found four NPCs no one had bid on with master skills that I liked. I had six minutes left and needed to choose two. The skills were tracking, arcane lore, mining, and herbalism. They were all great skills, and I was thought the master tracker might have some combat skills as well. The arcane lore might make a great librarian…for the library that wasn’t built. The master miner…well we did have a mountain to the north, and Sanso already was mining copper under his tower. Herbalism would be a great way to strengthen both our cook and alchemist by providing better ingrediants. Ugh, why did it have to be so hard!
Two minutes. One minute. Fine! I made my choices, and the auction timer reached zero. I was absolutely in utter disbelief that I had lost one of my NPCs! “Fucking shit!” I swore aloud, shocking the players, and explained, “Someone outbid me at the last second on my city planner. They bid one platinum and a copper. Shit!” Not only did I lose probably the most important NPC, but also, I lost one of my NPC bidding slots. I screamed in frustration, and this drew attention from the NPC patrons. I calmed down. It was to be expected these types of games were competitive, and best not to get upset and just learn from my mistake. My other 10 bids looked fine… No, the list had been divided. The halfling farmer and the dwarf city planner had a new timer going.
“Something is up guys,” I said as I delved deeper. The auction ended earlier than it was supposed to. I had thought it was perhaps due to the game needing to do game stuff to move the NPCs to their new location. But that was not the case. I started digging through the text and this is what I found.
The NPC auction will end two hours before NPC allocation, locking in your bids.
So, what did that mean? I moved and tried to bid on the dwarf city planner, and I was allowed to raise the bid to 1 platinum and one gold. “Yes!” I screamed then gained composure. “The NPC auction doesn’t end two hours before NPCs are sent to their new locations. It just locks in what NPC slots can be bid on in the last two hours. Since no one bid on 9 of the 11 NPCs I have won the auction for those NPCs. I just have two NPCs I am still competing for. The halfling farmer and the dwarf city planner.”
I watched the screen, and nothing happened, no one outbid me on either one. Then, with an hour left in the bidding wars a change occurred. A 60-second timer appeared before each NPC. It was a countdown. When the timer reached zero the city planner went up to 1 platinum and 10 gold and the halfling farmer moved to the list of my other secured NPCs. So, I won the farmer and had 60 seconds to counter the bid for the city planner.
I moved my bid to 2 platinum and watched anxiously as the 60-second timer reset. With one second left, it went to 2 platinum and 1 gold. “So Mad Dog I am in a bidding war for the last NPC. In the last hour of the auction, you have 60 seconds to outbid your opponent. If you don’t then the highest bid wins.”
It was Grinder who spoke up. “That means there are up to 60 or more bids in the final hour. Is your opponent waiting till the timer reaches near zero each time?” Grinder asked. I nodded. “Typical tactic. They are trying to draw out the auction and get the last bid in at the end of the hour. You should see how deep their pockets are if this NPC is that important to you. That way, if you lose, then at least you made them dent their bank account. Letting them slow play you like this will let them spend as little as possible.” I nodded. Grinder, for being a bloodthirsty fighter, was actually wise.
“I will bid five platinum next.” I did so, and when the timer reached one second, I was outbid again. Mad Dog said I should go all in. I had 11 platinum available in my player bag. If I was outbid, friends promised they would pool their coins to help me bid higher. I nodded and bid 11 platinum. I was on pins and needles when the timer finally expired, and I had won! The dwarf city planner moved to my ‘completed’ bids. She had cost 11 platinum, but I hoped she would be worth every coin.
We all moved the portal stone and waited for the arrivals. I let everyone know the NPC auction had finished and nothing. We had maybe 50 townsfolk at the stone, and I was disappointed, what had gone wrong? A slight pop occurred and 22 halflings were on the large portal stone! They looked around bewildered and I introduced myself, “Welcome to Malcum! If you can move off the stone, the locals will help you all get settled and select your land for your craft!” It was working! Not only did the halflings get here immediately but the townsfolk were already smiling and introducing themselves. We now had a small halfling enclave of farmers. I hoped it wouldn’t be difficult to convince them to stay.
Almost immediately after they moved off the stone the next pop occurred. A massive minotaur had appeared. I was glad the game was at least spacing out the arrivals, “Manto! Your brewer has arrived!” The minotaur was still taking everything in, and I didn’t notice the small child behind him who was scared. Manto rushed from the crowd to speak with the bull-man, and I didn’t hear what was said but he nodded and followed Manto toward the brewery, probably for a tour.
It was a few minutes before the next arrival occurred. It was a demonkin woman. She was athletic with light red skin and two small horns on her head. She looked mostly human except for the horns and skin color. This was my master tracker.
Mira
Farstrider 142
Demonkin
F
30
Master Tracking
By the ebony bow on her back and the deep black leather armor, I think she was a ranger type, so it was definitely a massive score for the village, a level 142 ranger! She was also highly exotic looking like I would expect of a succubus. I could see Grinder and Mad Dog undressing her with their eyes. “Master Mira,” I said as the crowd was getting a little loud from all the excitement. I waved over Tanguin and Galana. “When everyone was close, I could see Mira watching everything, still a little taken off guard by her situation. “Master Mira welcome to Malcum. This is General Tanguin and Captain Galana. They will give you a tour of the village. Once you have a good grasp of the village we can talk. I am hoping you will take up the mantle of Master of Scouts for our fair Malcum.” Due to her high level, I didn’t think putting her under the command of Tanguin would be a good idea. They moved off and I could already hear Tanguin asking to try out her ebony bow. I hoped that went well as Galana was already shaking her head and whispering something to the demonkin woman.
Next to arrive was the furniture maker. He was a wolfkin with a wife and son. Curraen and Manarag’s families moved forward to acclimate them. It was almost thirty minutes before the next arrival. A few villagers with nothing to do had already left, but I was waiting for my dwarf city planner. The next arrival was a giantkin. He was bigger than both Tanguin and Galana and had a white beard and hair. He looked wise and pompous at the same time. I whispered to Jaesmin, “You are up! You need to convince this one to stay and take over your duties.” She looked determined as she went to introduce herself.
I was nervous and my mind wandered. Do you know what we need? We needed seating around the portal stone. All this waiting was tiring. The next arrival was a gnome decked out in plate mail. This miniature steel-clad warrior did look a little amusing. He was the gnome Hospitalar. I had invested a platinum in the short…I guess paladin…so best not to upset him by commenting on his comical appearance. Thankfully, Fareth appeared out of nowhere and screamed, “Titus, is that you? You old moldy blockhead!”
Titus turned to look for the voice and focused on Fareth before smiling and yelling back, “Fareth, your old dishwasher. What are you doing out here in no man’s land?” The two moved together and embraced. I didn’t hear the exchange, but they moved off toward the inn. Well, that was fortunate…too fortunate. I had that itchy feeling that somehow the game’s AIs were helping me a little. It was too much of a coincidence in a vast game world that those two high-level gnome NPCs knew each other.
My musings ended as almost immediately the next arrival popped in. It was a female dwarf, and she was alone. I had only bid on one dwarf in the auction, so this had to be my city planner. She was already looking around; a frown was becoming bigger and more prominent on her face. Shit. I moved in.
“Master Breda, welcome to Malcum! I am Lord Tallis and will give you a tour of our fair village,” I said with great enthusiasm, but her frown remained. I then began to give her a tour of the village, and she asked many questions as we walked. You would think that would be good, but it wasn’t. After I answered her question, she would follow up with explanations of why I had done this or that wrong. The wrong street layout, buildings in inefficient locations, industry too close to houses, garbage and sewer, works not up to her standards. It just went on and on and I just nodded and felt worse and worse.
We finished our tour at the town hall, and she said the first nice thing all evening, “Nice building for such a small town.” Yep, that was the only compliment I had gotten from her. She had liked the barracks/gatehouse, but I had built it in the wrong place. I thought there was no way she was going to stay as she sat down at the desk in the room marked ‘City Planner’s Office.’
“So, Lord Tallis, it will take a lot of effort to get this city organized and functional. You have a lot of nice buildings, but little thought has gone into placing them.” I hung my head. “One platinum a month, and I can get you moving in the right direction.” Was that one platinum salary or one platinum in building expenses? I was afraid to ask. I wanted to tell her I had already spent 11 platinum to recruit her here! Damn it. I nodded, as I couldn’t risk negotiating and angering her. She grinned, either because I didn’t haggle or had just given her the keys to the city. I couldn’t tell. I brought her to one of the apartments and said she could live there. She walked around the place and nodded, saying it was acceptable. Well, at least she didn’t want a mansion or something else ludicrous to live in.
It had taken hours to give her the tour and the streetlights led me home. Jaesmin smiled as I came through the door. “He accepted! Just 25 gold a month! But there is a problem. His highest-ranked master skill, the bureaucracy of guilds, relates to the players and not crafter guilds.” My eyes popped, and Jaesmin thought I was angry. “Tallis, no need to worry! He has plenty of other administrative skills to do the job we needed him to do.”
My poor, naïve little woman. Did you at least haggle for his salary? I didn’t ask that as I hadn’t haggled with the dwarf woman either. Also, what did the giantkin’s guild skill do? I had a feeling tomorrow, I was going to be spending a large portion of my day sorting out the new NPCs and getting sticker shock on their salaries. Whose idea was it to bring in so many master-skilled NPCs…oh yeah, me.